On the first day without X, many Brazilians say they feel disconnected from the world

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SAO PAULO (AP) — The blocking of the social media platform X in Brazil has divided users and politicians over the legality of the ban, and many Brazilians on Saturday faced difficulty and doubts about navigating other social media in its absence.

Elon Musk’s platform went offline early Saturday, making it largely inaccessible on both the web and mobile apps after the billionaire declined to name a legal representative for the country, missing a deadline imposed by Supreme Court Justice Alexander de Moraes. The blockade marks an escalation in a months-long feud between Musk and de Moraes over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation.

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Brazil is one of the largest markets for X, with tens of millions of users.

“I feel like I don’t know what’s going on in the world right now. It’s weird,” entertainment writer and longtime X user Chico Barney wrote on Threads. Threads is a text-based app developed by Instagram that Barney was using as a stand-in. “This Threads algorithm is like an all-you-can-eat restaurant where the waiter keeps bringing me stuff I’d never order.”

Blue Sky, a social media platform launched last year as an alternative to X and other more established sites, has seen a huge influx of Brazilians in recent days. The company said Friday that it has seen about 200,000 new users from Brazil during that period, and that the number “continues to grow by the minute.” Blue Sky said Brazilian users are also setting records for activities such as followings and likes.

Former users of other platforms have welcomed the Brazilians into their ranks. “Hello everyone in Brazil,” one Threads user wrote. “We’re much nicer here than on Twitter,” said another.

Switching platforms is nothing new for Brazilians. They were big users of Orkut, and when Orkut went out of business, they happily switched to other platforms.

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X is not as popular in Brazil as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or TikTok. However, it remains an important platform through which Brazilians engage in political discussions and has significant influence among politicians, journalists and other opinion makers.

It’s also where they share their sense of humor. Many of the country’s most popular memes originated as posts on X before spreading to other social networks. Last week, for example, Brazilians created a ridiculous story for a fictional TV series, complete with a theme song created using artificial intelligence tools.

Pop stars and their fan bases have also been affected by the exclusion of Brazilians from the platform.

“Wait a lot of my fan pages are Brazilian!!! Go back and wait!!” Cardi B said on Friday on X. A fan page dedicated to Timothée Chalamet, known as TimotheeUpdates, said it would temporarily stop updating because all of its administrators are Brazilian.

De Moraes said X would remain suspended until it complied with his orders, and he set a daily fine of 50,000 Brazilian reals ($8,900) for people or companies using virtual private networks to access it. Some legal experts have questioned the rationale for the decision and how it will be implemented. Others have called the move arbitrary.

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The Brazilian Bar Association said in a statement on Friday that it will ask the Supreme Court to review fines imposed on all citizens who use VPNs or other means to access X without due process. The Brazilian Bar Association argued that the penalties should not be imposed immediately before ensuring a competitive process and the right to a full defense.

“I have used VPNs a lot in authoritarian countries like China to continue accessing news sites and social networks. It never occurred to me that this type of tool would be blocked in Brazil. It’s tragic,” Mauricio Santoro, a political science professor at Rio de Janeiro State University, said on the platform before it was shut down.

A search on Friday on the X site showed hundreds of Brazilian users inquiring about VPNs that could allow them to continue using the platform by making it appear as if they were logging in from outside the country.

“The dictators want to turn Brazil into another communist dictatorship but we will not back down. I repeat: do not vote for those who do not respect freedom of expression. Orwell was right,” right-wing congressman Nicolás Ferreira, one of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s closest allies, tweeted before X took off. Musk responded with an emoji suggesting agreement: “100.”

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Ferreira is a 28-year-old YouTuber who received the most votes among the 513 federal lawmakers elected in the 2022 elections. De Moraes ordered his social media accounts blocked after a mob of Bolsonaro supporters attacked Brazil’s Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court in January 2023 in an attempt to overturn the election.

“The consequences of Alexandre de Moraes’ attacks on Elon Musk, X and Starlink will be unfortunate for Brazilians,” said Congresswoman Pia Caeces. She also urged Rodrigo Pacheco, the president of the country’s Senate, to take action. Caeces Pacheco has repeatedly urged impeachment proceedings against the Supreme Court justice.

“We need to leave this state of indifference and stop the worst from happening,” said the pro-Bolsonaro lawmaker, whose accounts were temporarily blocked by De Moraes in 2022.

The former president said on Instagram on Saturday that X’s departure from Brazil was “another blow to our freedom and legal security.”

“It not only affects our freedom of expression, but also undermines the confidence of international companies in operating on Brazilian soil, with effects ranging from national security to the quality of information reaching our citizens,” Bolsonaro said.

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On Friday, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva supported de Moraes’ decision and criticized Musk for placing himself as if he were above the law during an interview with MaisPB radio.

“Any citizen from anywhere in the world who has investments in Brazil is subject to the Brazilian Constitution and Brazilian laws. So, if the Supreme Court issues a ruling for citizens to comply with certain things, they either have to comply or take another course of action. It’s not because a man has a lot of money that he can’t respect it,” Lula said.

Ana Julia Alves de Oliveira, an 18-year-old student, says many young people like her no longer watch the news or read newspapers, relying solely on social media platforms like X for news. Without that platform, she felt disconnected.

“I’ve kind of lost touch with what’s going on around the world. I’ve seen a lot of entertainment out there too, so this is a new reality for me,” she said.

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Associated Press writer Mauricio Savarese contributed to this story from Sao Paulo.

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